I have been having full phimosis where in I could not even able to retract a bit when flacid. Last 4 months I have been trying stretching and I have made gradual progress. Now I could retract half of the glans. I just wanted to know what is the normal retraction, should it come all the way of glans or just half of it. I am asking this since the half part of seems larger than the front part and I get feeling that foreskin may become too loose for the front part of glans. Should I still go on stretching to make it pass through whole glans? Any picture of normal retraction would help me understand how much I should go on.

It is normal for the skin to retract completely off the glans, exposing the edge (corona). The skin is quite elastic, so looseness should not become a problem.

Hello Amit. Did you post here previously?

Hey, look, here's a picture of a penis with the foreskin pulled fully back, and a view of the same from a different angle.

Presumably, your description indicates something like this second picture, or perhaps this one or even this one.

Actually, all these pictures are as far as we can tell, the same penis which is clearly completely normal and representative of what you should expect, but serve most usefully to demonstrate different degrees of retraction. Take a look at the whole page and see to which ones you can compare - get back to us on this.

Please also explain how you are stretching, and whether it is as we have recommended elsewhere on this forum - you may not be using a particularly effective method.

Sorry I didn't check the forum for a while. Thanks Paul for your reply. I didn't post previosly here.

I can say my situation is similar like or pictures 16 or 19 in the page http://www.foreskin.org/33-color.htm.

I just could not pull over the edge of the glans when it is erect. So I still need to go further with my exercises? I have been stretching by inserting 2 fingers and pulling it outwards. Is there any other streching exercises I need to do?

If you're seeing progress, keep doing what you're doing.

But you can pull it fully back when flaccid?

If that is the case, then you do need to keep on with the stretching as you describe, with two fingers inside pulled apart. Actually, the great beauty of the "two fingers" method, is that you can rest them against each other so that you only need to flex the fingers to do the stretching, while your arms do not have to hold the tension.

Now, if the foreskin will not pull fully back when flaccid, then you also need to do the "frænulum stretch" as least as often and as long.

Getting back to why you need the foreskin to fully retract anyway, then the two reasons are for optimum hygiene (washing with water only, not soap) and because it presumably will be more pleasurable during intercourse, to have that full movement of the foreskin. In particular when a woman has given birth one or more times, the pressure of the vagina tends to diminish, and the stimulation on the penis is correspondingly less.

It sounds as if you have a concern that stretching your foreskin wide enough to pass completely over the glans, will result in it being so loose that it fails to pull fully over the head when flaccid and provide full protection. I cannot guarantee (one never can) that will not happen - some men are naturally like this - but I doubt it will be a concern. Foreskins are in general, impressively elastic (where elasticity is defined as the ability to return exactly to the state before tension was applied).

I can pull it over the edge of the glans when flaccid. But I don't do this regularly as it foreskin does not rollback automatically after I pull it over the glans. It stops behind the edge and I have to push it back by pressing the glans back inside when it is flaccid. Is it normal in flaccid state?

So in erect state the foreskin has to rollover fully with much tension, right? I will try to continue the two finger stretch as I have been doing. I was wondering I am not seeing much progress may be because I am not inserting the fingers far enough? How long it may take to reach full retraction?

You may be at an expected plateau. Don't try forcing the skin to grow at a faster rate right now. It takes time for cells to multiply, so if you're at a standstill, that's what's happening.

It is normal for the foreskin to return over the glans without coaxing. It is also normal for retraction to be easily accomplished when the penis is erect. Your status indicates a need for more work.

Right now, keep applying moderate tension regularly. In a short time, you'll see the skin again begin to relax more and allow better mobility.

As a general rule, you want to practice regularly, whatever you want to be able to do regularly, which includes moving your foreskin fully back and forward..

With regard to getting two fingers inside the foreskin, you want to (have your fingernails adequately trimmed and) have them fully inside the foreskin so that they are touching or alongside your glans. You will then be able to feel exactly where the tight area is and pull against it strongly enough to feel just a little uncomfortable, but not strictly painful.

Of course you do not expect to feel it get looser on any one occasion, but with persistence over the weeks, you should notice little improvements. As Jim says, it may appear to "resist" for a while, but if you do the stretching meticulously, it will respond sooner or later. Clearly, different people have different experiences depending on their individual situation and how often and how firmly they stretch.

While you would like it to be improved as soon as possible, we trust you have a long life to live, and even a few months spent on this project is trivial compared to a properly functioning penis. And the problem you describe does not impede the progress of developing a genuine sexual relationship in the meantime.

The expected end result is indeed a foreskin that is easy to roll back and forward again, when erect, though it may not necessarily retract by itself on erection (because it is already long enough not to) it most likely should re-cover the glans when you lose the erection (but that will depend a little on just how small your penis becomes when flaccid, which also varies from person to person).

Now I am able to retract fully when erect. But the skin doesn't roll back easily when it goes behind the glans, does it mean still I need more work to do? Also glans is longer in the top portion and shorter in the bottom, so the foreskin is pulled back more on top of glans, is that ok?

Retraction should be easy, so you may have a few more weeks of work to do. You also need to continue for about a month to give new cells time to form and fill in the stretched area.

Foreskin vary, and your particular "style" is one of the variations. If you wish to adjust the length of the bottom part, try stretching it. However, what you describe as more being pulled back on top is caused by the additional bulk of the top of the glans. The very nature of the glans is that there is much more of it on the top side, so the foreskin has a lot more to uncover. In addition, the frenulum can restrict the amount of skin which retracts on the underside.

Look at the pictures here which illustrate how it happens:

http://indra.com/~shredder/intact/anatomy/

Hello again Amit.

Let me say (and yet again) that this is all a matter of what you wish to happen. It is functionally desirable firstly that the foreskin can retract (over an erection), and secondly that if it moves back and forth easily, this can serve to minimise friction and discomfort if at any time during vaginal intercourse, there is less than adequate lubrication.

Neither of these are however, an absolute necessity for intercourse, as is unfortunately demonstrated by the ability of circumcised men to have intercourse, and much of the time claim that it is "fine" for them.

If you wish to achieve a looser result, simply continue the stretching to do so. We have in effect, provided you with a "tool" to do this.

In summary, given that you can retract fully when erect, there is no "normal", "correct" or "perfect" appearance of the penis. Figure 11 at the previously mentioned Foreskin.org site gives you an indication of just one appearance of a perfectly normal foreskin in retraction. It is the case that the penile glans is vertically asymmetrical, shorter underneath and that the foreskin attaches there by the frænulum , which limits how far it retracts on the underside - that is perfectly normal and to be expected.

Thanks Paul and Jim for your valuable advices. It's with the help of you, I have reached this stage from where I can't even enter a single finger inside the foreskin.

I think the foreskin is not moving far enough in the bottom because of short frenulum. Is there a technique to lengthen the frenulum as well? How much duration this might take to increase the length?

Kind of informational question, in the bottom foreskin is attached to the glans using frenulum. How is the top side of the foreskin connected to the glans? Is the foreskin attached after the glans to the shaft on the top side?

The frenulum is actually a continuation of the band you are attempting to enlarge, so it can be stretched as well. In your present state, grasping it is impossible, so the only method I know of is to grasp the foreskin on the underside where the frenulum attachs and pull it out away from your body. Hold it for a few minutes and repeat several times per day. Since this is easy and quick to do, you can do it after peeing.

The topside attaches by folding under itself and connecting to the shaft right behind the groove (sulcus) of the glans. If the frenulum were not there, the inner foreskin would lay flat on the shaft appearing as a continuous part of the shaft skin, discernable only by a difference in texture and color, the inner part being mucosa instead of skin. The frenar band also helps to differntiate somewhat.

In fact I pointed out and illustrated the manoeuvre for the "frænulum stretch" in my second reply on this very thread.